they are much better agency than showed up here for katrina. and the federal government both this president and the congress and i was a part of leading the team to help create a stronger, more robust fema. it's not perfect. i might want to add that it's much better. it's not the only central agency that has to show up. agriculture has to show up. energy has to show up. hud has to show up. and unfortunately, carl, just a few months ago the republican leadership in congress stripped all of the money out of those accounts and left only money in fema. thank goodness there is money in fema. it was a really unfortunate move. >> a lot of discussion about that over the past few days. one discussion that keeps coming up now, senator, is the degree to which the jersey shore, lower manhattan, are going to have to do big engineering infrastructure projects sort of like the levees had to be redone in new orleans. what are you hearing on that front? >> i think absolutely. i haven't yet had a conversation personally with mayor bloomberg but i intend to and o